Page 181 of I Ran Away to Evil 3
“No,” Julian replied, offering his hand. Meanwhile, Tully was neck and neck with the giant, and Alice was swooping in to attack him as well.
Considering, I pulled out a vial of belladonna poison and threw it at the beastfolk standing beside the dungeon core. It sailed through the air but was shot down by a claw strike from the same beastfolk.
“Jeffry. Give Julian the Eye of Effeldor,” I ordered.
Jeffry clutched at his pendant for dear life.
“He’ll give it back,” I said, feeling a little absurd that I had to make the reassurance, but apparently I did, because Jeffry struggled with himself to take it off even then.
Julian took the brooch. “Are you sure?”
“Yep.” I shooed him away. “You focus on the dungeon core, and we’ll focus on finding Visha.”
[Still looking.]
One of John’s shadows must have overheard us.
Julian leaned forward and kissed me. We broke apart as a poison-tipped dagger sailed between us.
Alice was standing on an ice spear. She stared at Jeffry. “Why won’t you all juststay dead? Must I [Sever Fate] all of you?!”
“I’ll be right back. Don’t die in the meantime,” Julian told me, activating hisnew wings and leaping into the air. He spared no time, darting straight for the dungeon core as fast as he could.
“Wait!” Alice shouted.
The beastfolk stepped forward to intercept Julian, changing into a half-leopard, half-folk warrior, claws out.
Their roles weren’t evenly matched. Julian was a high-defense, sword-and-board tank, and the beastfolk was a melee fighter. Julian put all his strength behind his shield andpushed, taking a claw to the face but managing to throw the beastfolk woman. She blew through the terrain and landed against the cavern wall to the far right of the dungeon core.
He dropped his sword and reached for the orb.
A trap went off, exploding shards of poison-tipped mithril. Julian took the attack head-on, sliding back three feet and dropping to one knee. He could’ve probably defended against one or two shards of poison attacks … but not the ten that blasted into him.
At the same instant, Alice portaled on top of him, a beautiful smile on her face. “Got you.”
Julian slumped forward, asleep and dying.
When he was beside me, it seemed like there was no way we could lose. A certainty that with Julian, everything would turn out fine. I knew his dedication, how hard he’d trained to be here. I knew that despite everything I’d done to alter the course of his fate … it was still his fate.
But I was wrong.
And even though we outnumbered Alice, watching her stand over the love of my life finally broke me.
“Alice!” I shrieked, jumping down from the platform and sprinting toward them. Jeffry tried to grab me, but I evaded. The precariously icy terrain made it difficult, but my Dexterity kept me going. At the very least, I could offer to trade myself; I was the one she actually wanted. “Wait! I surrender!”
“You think Itrustyou?” The celestial pulled out her short sword and stabbed it downward … into the shadowbeneathJulian. Right between his arm and his chest.
John let out a strangled cry, appearing against the left wall where Visha was still buried. He had a gaping hole in his side and was fumbling for a potion. Alice let go of the hilt of the sword, which stayed upright.
“You can’t kill him, Alice!” I yelled, now halfway across the cavern. I was trying to reason with the celestial even as I knew that she didn’t care. “He has to defeat this dungeon. You know he does! Fate—”
“No. He doesn’t,” the celestial said. She shifted her head to dodge a sword-aura strike from Jeffry. Alice laughed. “You have the audacity to say thatI’mnot allowed to change fate? When she’s alreadyabandoned me?”
I was almost there.
“He willneverdefeat this dungeon,” Alice decided, a soft smile lighting up her face. “And if I take him with me,you’llbe the one chasingmefor a change.” She reached up for the dungeon core, hesitated for the barest second, and then touched it.
Divine magic swirled around her. Unlike a mortal’s colored mana, the motes of shifting rainbow light looked like experience points; it overwhelmed the celestial. She screamed and sank to her knees at the foot of the pedestal.
